This article discusses two schemes for teaching writing in schools. One uses analysis of model texts into techniques and devices then application of these by students to their written compositions and one uses a process approach that includes pre-writing and exploring, drafting, sharing and discussing, revising and celebrating to exploit students'…

Reading comprehension is the goal of reading, and making inferences is vital. Authors usually expect readers to make multiple types of inferences, including anaphoric, background knowledge, predictive, and retrospective. Common core assessments include all of these, yet instructional materials focus mostly on only one type, retrospective. This…

Recent research shows that reading comprehension relies heavily on prior knowledge. Far more than generic "reading skills" like drawing inferences, making predictions, and knowing the function of subheads, how well students learn from a nonfiction text depends on their background knowledge of the text's subject matter. And in a cyclical…

This article describes a cooperative writing response initiative designed to develop writing skills in foreign/second-language contexts (hereafter L2). The strategy originated from my desire to cater for my learners' need to become better writers in English within a constrained educational environment in Argentina. In this article I describe this…

The article describes a successful intervention program in developing inferential comprehension in a sixth grader. Steve (pseudonym) was proficient in word reading, was able to detect explicit information while reading, but struggled with linking textual information to yield integral ideas. After 10 weeks of working with Steve on word analogies,…

The activities described in this article, Prediction Path and Quotation Cafe, are adapted from the IRA book "Building Reading Comprehension Habits in Grades 6-12." They highlight the reading comprehension habit of making inferences and predictions, which can be used across content areas and grade levels. In creating this toolkit of activities, the…

Teaching learners how to comprehend text remains a largely unsuccessful attempt in our school system. Drawing from the fields of learning sciences, education, instructional design, and performance improvement, we designed, tested, revised, and released to schools and homes an interactive online program that reliably teaches flexible, widely…

In this article the author describes SQUiNK, a useful tool in interacting with text for all children and at varying levels and abilities. Initially the author sought to address the needs of readers with strong skills by more fully engaging them with expository text. But through the introduction to a strategy for addressing the needs of "all"…

Comprehension strategy instruction has been widely studied in the past 10 years. We now know that students who actively engage and interact with text using particular cognitive strategies are more likely to understand and remember more of what they have read. Students who use these strategies are able to access knowledge that is outside the realm…

In the past five years, at least a half dozen major reports have focused on adolescent literacy and providing adolescents with age-appropriate instruction. What is age-appropriate instruction for middle school students? As recent reports on adolescent literacy, such as those of the Carnegie Corporation and the ACT make clear, age-appropriate…

This article features FAST-R, or Formative Assessments of Student Thinking in Reading, a new assessment tool that measures critical-reading skills. FAST-R was developed by the the nonprofit Boston Plan for Excellence (BPE), a local education foundation, to provide teachers with information about what students are thinking when they try to find…

Listening to students in productive ways seems to be at the core of teaching practices aligned with the basic tenets of the constructivist world view. We present a definition for productive ways of listening, discuss the challenges involved in implementing it, and propose a way to support the "decentering" needed to learning to listen for teacher…

In 1988, the author taught remedial Senior English reading at a rural high school. None of the students intended to go to college. Instead, they all planned to be homemakers, farmers, or watermen. On the second day of class, he assigned a short story from the cumbersome literature book. The classroom was quiet for a moment, and then one of the…